A bit of drama occurred the past couple weeks at the state Capitol as both parties played hot potato with the hot-button issue of the day — the federal health care reform bill, or ObamaCare.

The drama actually began in the legislative session but was renewed as a Sept. 30 deadline approached for applying for a federal grant called a Level I Establishment Grant. This potentially multi-million dollar grant would provide funds for the state to plan how to set up a health insurance exchange at the state level.

ObamaCare requires either the implementation of the health care exchanges on a state level or the federal government will establish one for the state. It is still uncertain how a state exchange would differ from one put together by the federal government.

Republicans successfully fought against the implementation of state insurance exchanges in the closing days of heated debate in the House. Their reasoning was that ObamaCare stood a good chance of being overturned by the courts or by a party change in the Senate and the White House, so let’s take a wait-and-see approach before spending millions on the exchange.

Since that time, Gov. Mike Beebe has backed away from proceeding with anything that could be perceived as advancing the state exchanges. However, federal grant money is an irresistible attraction for many in the state bureaucracy and something most Democrats in the state are not used to turning back.

“The way I look at it is never turn down free money,” commented state Rep. Clark Hall, D-Marvell, on applying for the grant. Clark is seriously considering a run for Congress against Republican Rick Crawford.

In addition, several health care organizations who stand to make a pretty nice profit from the new exchanges and mandated coverage appealed to Gov. Beebe to reconsider and allow Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford to apply for the planning grant.

Although within his power to do so on his own as he did for a prior $1 million grant the state already applied for and received, Beebe instead sent Bradford over to the Legislature to ask for a permission slip.

This was a tricky task. First, the Legislature was not in session and therefore did not have the power to vote on anything officially. Second, even if legislators were in session, they would not have the power to authorize the governor to do something he was already authorized to do.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample was unable to tell me exactly what the governor wanted other than “some indication from the legislators who were adamant that Rep. Allen’s bill (setting up the state health care exchanges) not pass and held up the insurance commission budget.” Letters, meetings or even emails were fine with them.Nevertheless, Bradford went with hat in hand to ask for someone in the Legislature to sign off on the state exchanges. In the first ad hoc meeting following a meeting of the Arkansas Legislative Council, Bradford pleaded for the Legislature to send Beebe an indication that it was OK to go ahead and apply for the grant. However, when asked how much he planned to apply for, Bradford was not sure, so they asked him to come back in a week with a budget.

At this next meeting, under the organization of the Joint Committee on Advanced Communications and Information Technology, Bradford spelled out a $3.8 million budget, which was primarily made up of $3.3 million for consultants, including $1.5 million for something called a “public education campaign.”

Needless to say, Republicans were unimpressed.

“As members of the legislative branch of government, we regret our role in this decision cannot be more direct,” Minority Leader John Burris, along with five other Republicans, wrote to Bradford. “As you know, only approval of the executive branch is required to apply for a Level I Establishment Grant. At this time, we oppose the governor moving forward with any additional spending as it relates to implementation of the HIE.”

So there you have it. Lacking the permission of the minority party to do what he is legally and constitutionally authorized to do, Beebe decided to pass on applying for the grants.

Jason Tolbert is an accountant and conservative political blogger. His blog — The Tolbert Report — is linked at ArkansasNews.com. His e-mail is jason@TolbertReport.com.